Fight All Night, Sleep All Day
by quicksilversquared
Summary: Chat Noir misses a late-night fight. Without her partner's help and running low on sleep herself, Ladybug's fight takes most of the night. As a result, Marinette is in a near-zombie state when she goes to school the next morning. (In which Marinette isn't awake and Adrien feels more than a little guilty.)


Adrien glanced up as the doorknob turned on the classroom door. The bell had only just rung, and whatever unlucky person was on the other side hadn't been able to make it in time.

The door opened a crack and Marinette peered in, taking advantage of the teacher's turned back to scamper surprisingly quickly up into her seat. She was settled by the time the Miss Bustier turned around, and class continued like normal for ten minutes.

"Marinette! Is my class not interesting enough for you?"

Adrien spun around in time to see Marinette's head fly up in sleepy-eyed alarm from on top of her folded arms. As she sat up her arms came unfolded, revealing bloody scrapes along her right arm. Adrien's eyes widened just as Nino blurted, "What did you do to your _arm?!_ "

"I'm sorry, professor." Marinette's voice was sheepish as a pink tinge spread across her cheeks, embarrassed at being caught sleeping. "I barely got any sleep last night. There was a akuma attack right outside my house last night, and Chat Noir didn't show up so Ladybug had to defeat it by herself and it was a tough one and it took _hours_ and was pretty loud." She yawned widely, clapping a hand over her mouth to try to cover the yawn. "So I overslept and then tripped while I was running to school."

Adrien felt a surge of guilt- not only had he not been there to help his Lady- _ooh, he'd have some apologizing to do next time he saw her_ \- but his absence had also affected Marinette. Those scratches _really_ didn't look good and there was probably still grit in them. Enough blood was oozing out from her injuries that there were little drops falling onto the desk. Marinette had dark bags under her eyes as well, clearly exhausted.

"Of course she would trip," Chloe snickered. "She's such a klutz-"

"Cut it out, Chloe," Adrien snapped, cutting the blonde girl off. "That's not nice." He ignored Chloe's shocked face as he twisted back around to look at Marinette again. Ladybug was probably in no better shape if she had been fighting for hours. He would have to check his phone during break for the inevitable report of the fight to see just how hard his Lady had had it without him. If the fight had gone on for hours, that meant that she would have had to recharge at least once, more if she had used her Lucky Charm several times.

"Alya, take Marinette to the nurse to get that scrape cleaned up," Miss Bustier ordered. "Marinette, take this hour off and get a little more sleep. You can get the notes later."

"You can have my notes," Adrien immediately volunteered. After all, it _was_ sort of his fault that she was so exhausted. For once Marinette didn't blush and stutter, only nodding sleepily in reply as Alya pulled her up out of her seat and out the door. Miss Bustier immediately called a custodian to come clean up the blood on the desk before continuing with her lesson.

Marinette wasn't in their next class either. Alya reported that the nurse wanted Marinette to get at least two hours of sleep before even trying to come to class again, since she had only gotten about three or four hours of sleep the previous night. Adrien immediately winced, realizing that Ladybug must have wrapped up fighting at about four in the morning, and the akuma probably was created before midnight. Maybe he could give Marinette a present to make up for the sleep he had indirectly caused her to lose. Maybe he could deliver it at Chat Noir.

When Marinette arrived halfway through third hour she looked better than before, but the entirety of her right forearm was wrapped in white bandages. She looked pale, though whether it was blood loss or exhaustion it was hard to tell.

"Are you feeling better, Marinette?" Adrien asked as soon as class was over, twisting around to look at her.

"A bit," Marinette responded through a yawn. She was cute with her eyes scrunched closed like that. "Physics is not the most awakening class ever, though."

Adrien had to laugh at that. "No, I suppose not. But you'll be in class for the rest of the day, right?"

"Unless I fall asleep again, yes." The yawn she gave wasn't terribly promising.

Adrien reached up to give her a pat on the shoulder as he rose. "You'll be fine." He left with one last smile, already lost in ideas of how to make up for Chat's absence in the previous night's battle.

* * *

Chat Noir swung himself silently into Marinette's bedroom, glancing around as he did. He felt like a creep, but how else was he supposed to deliver his present? The room was dark, only the fading sunlight providing any light. Marinette sat slouched at her desk, face pressed into her book as she slept. He let a smile spread across his face as he slipped up behind her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, Princess." He gave her a gentle shake, crouching down to be on her eye level. She was so tiny compared to him. Just like Ladybug. Like his lady, though, she was a force to be reckoned with. "Princess? Wake up, that doesn't look comfortable."

Marinette groaned in her sleep and burrowed her head more deeply into her arms. "I'm sleeping. I'm _tired_."

"But the bed would be more comfortable, don't you think?" Chat Noir gathered her up into his arms, taking only a moment to glance around before spotting her bed. "Come on, princess."

"Chat Noir?" Marinette sounded a little more awake now, struggling to sit up in his arms even as he headed up the stairs and set her down on the soft bed. "What...what are you doing here?"

Chat Noir smiled at her as she yawned. "I heard that I caused you to lose a lot of sleep last night since I failed to show up to the fight. I wanted to apologize." He knelt at her feet to tug off her shoes and socks, then straightened enough to help her remove her jacket. "I neglected my duties and you're suffering for it, so I bought a present."

"You didn't need to do that."

"But I wanted to. Please accept it?" He held the present out to her, a small charm bracelet with a black cat charm on it. The charm had an unusually large head and big green eyes and, at least to Adrien, looked like a miniature Plagg. His kwami insisted that he was _much_ more handsome than the cat charm and to compare the two was an insult to him.

"It's cute!" Marinette said, slurring her words slightly through a yawn. Chat Noir smiled at her and took the bracelet back so he could latch it around her wrist. It was a perfect fit. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. And I hope you sleep well tonight." He helped her slide into the middle of her bed and tucked her in. "Good night, Princess."

"'Night, Chat Noir."


End file.
